Isabel's run

and fell in right on her bumper. I never liked being in the back.

The patrol car that had been blocking traffic onto Brooklyn from the north had already swung out across Sixty-Fifth and stopped, blocking traffic for us. Nancy took advantage of this as she switched on her lights and siren and rounded the corner onto Sixty-Fifth. “Hold on,” I yelled to Toni as we blew around the corner behind her. Six more patrol cars followed, right behind us, all with lights flashing and sirens on. Talk about an adrenaline rush! I hadn’t been “Code 3” since my earliest CID training days. Part of the curriculum was serving six months as an MP- for me, this meant at Fort Lewis near Tacoma. Occasionally, we’d been involved with a chase-usually of a soldier who’d had a little too much fun at one of the local drinking establishments. The MPs on gate detail take a dim view of soldiers who crash through without clearance.

As we hustled eastbound, I noticed that Northeast Sixty-Fifth Street gradually changed character from almost pure residential where we started to almost pure commercial by the time we crossed Twenty-Fifth Avenue Northeast. We picked up speed. Ten blocks later, we slowed again as we reached Thirty-Fifth. It had taken about two minutes to cover the mile between Brooklyn and Thirty-Fifth. As we reached the intersection, I hit the speed dial on my cell phone for Doc. I put it on speakerphone and when he answered, I said, “How we looking?”

“They’re all still inside,” he said.

“Good. We’re only a few blocks away now.”

“I know. I can hear you. You guys gonna turn them sirens off?”

At that moment, Nancy turned her siren off, and everyone else followed suit. I smiled. “How’s that for service?” I asked, as we made the turn southbound on Thirty-Fifth.

“Cool. See you in a minute.”

I watched in the rearview mirror as three patrol cars followed us onto Thirty-Fifth while the other three went straight through the intersection.

“You ready to go get Kelli?” I asked Toni.

She nodded. I saw her hand gripping the door, tightly.

I reached over and put my hand on her shoulder. “She’ll be fine, Toni. Those guys don’t even know we’re coming. They won’t know what hit ’em.”

She nodded. “I hope so. I’ll be glad when it’s over.”

I glanced at her. I don’t think she gets scared-or at least, not to the point where it incapacitates her. I’ve seen her in action plenty of times. Focused? Yep. Pissed off? Sometimes. Scared? Never. That said, having her little sister in a threatening position was clearly getting to her.

“It’ll be over soon,” I said. “Just a few minutes now.”

Our group reached Sixty-Second Avenue and turned east off of Thirty-Fifth Street. Suddenly, the street narrowed considerably, and we had to slow down to no more than twenty miles per hour. After our high-speed run, it seemed like the minute-long drive down the five blocks to Fortieth Street took forever.

Just as we turned onto Fortieth, my phone rang. Caller ID: Doc. I hit the button to answer the call on the speaker.

“They’re coming out!” Doc called.

Oh, shit. Nancy was already around the corner, heading north toward the house, no more than 150 yards away from them. I needed to warn her. I pulled up behind her and started flashing my lights like crazy. I didn’t want to honk my horn, figuring that that would alert Donnie Martin. Unfortunately, while I was trying to flag down Nancy, she and Tyrone were looking for the house-she wasn’t looking in the rearview mirror. I didn’t have her number on speed dial, but it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. Five seconds later, she drove right up to the house and stopped in the middle of the road. I pulled up and stopped not far behind her.

From my vantage point behind her, I saw Donnie Martin walking from the front door of the house, following Kelli and Crystal. DeMichael Hollins was already in the maroon Expedition, waiting for the others. At the same time I saw him, Martin looked up and saw Nancy and Tyrone drive up and stop in the middle of the street with their red- and-blue flashing lights turned on. He didn’t hesitate.

Martin reached behind his back and pulled out a handgun-looked like a full-size Glock. Without pausing, he opened fire.

Martin’s first shot blew out the side window in the Crown Vic right behind Nancy. She reacted instinctively and put the big car back in gear and floored it. Just as she started moving forward, Martin fired again. This time, he blew out the driver’s side window right beside her face. Immediately, the big car veered off the road and plowed into a tree with a bang! Holy shit! The hood sprung and the airbags deployed. There was no movement from the car-I couldn’t tell if Nancy and Tyrone had been hit or were simply dazed. From the corner of my eye, I could see the patrol cars at the top of the street just round the corner from Sixty-Fifth, unaware yet that Nancy was under fire.

Martin began walking toward the car. He started to raise his handgun. He was moving in to finish them off. Instinct kicked in.

“Hey!” I yelled, as I opened the door and started to get out.

This surprised him for a moment. He’d apparently been focusing on Nancy so much that he hadn’t even noticed me behind her, or maybe the Jeep had thrown him off. “Toni, get down!” I yelled. Her door flew open, and she dove out the right side as I finished getting out on my side. I now became Martin’s more immediate threat, so he turned to face me. We were probably one hundred feet or so apart, so I wasn’t too worried that he’d be able to hit me from that distance. Which, I suppose, is the reason I was so surprised when one second later, he opened fire on me, and the driver’s side mirror on the Jeep blew up. Damn! That was a lot closer than I’d expected. I heard the sound of the gunshot a split second later.

The gunshot apparently roused Nancy as well. Her door must have been jammed, and she chose that moment to start kicking on it from inside in order to get free. Unfortunately, Martin heard her, too. He started to turn back to her, back to his original mission. Behind him, I could see the squad cars screeching to a halt. Now the officers inside saw what was happening.

“Hey,” I yelled again. I had my.45 drawn at the low ready. “Donnie Martin!” I yelled. “Drop your weapon! Do it now!”

He looked at Nancy; then, without turning his body, he looked sideways at me. He smiled. Guess he figured I couldn’t hit him, either. Then, still looking at me, he started to raise his gun at Nancy. She was less than twenty feet away from him-he could hardly miss.

Suddenly, without consciously thinking about it, I made a quick decision. The outside world seemed to recede. Everything switched to slow motion. My arms came up automatically and once again, all my training kicked in. As my arms came up, my right thumb pushed the safety lever off. I took one deep breath and then held it in as I completed the movement. My eyes instantly found the front sight as I raised it to Donnie Martin’s head. With all my concentration, I focused on the front sight. Steady. Squeeze. BOOM! The round fired. I didn’t need to look.

Chapter 28

As the sound of the shot died away, things started happening fast. All twelve uniformed officers converged on the scene, guns drawn. I’d already holstered my weapon-I did it automatically after the threat was over. Besides, it’s generally a bad idea to have a gun in hand in the vicinity of police officers-especially if they’re already jumpy.

Some of the officers headed for Donnie Martin, his lifeless body sprawled faceup on the pavement. Others headed for the red Expedition.

“Get on the ground!” They had their weapons drawn and pointed at DeMichael Hollins, Crystal, and Kelli. “Out of the car!” they yelled at Hollins.

For his part, Hollins seemed like he was completely stunned at the turn of events. One second, he’s going on a shopping trip. The next second, a police car pulls up, his best friend pulls a gun and opens fire and is in turn killed right in front of his eyes, not six feet away. And now, the police were all over, guns pointed at him, ordering him out of the car.

“Show me your hands!” an officer standing right outside the driver’s door yelled. The officer’s weapon was